U.S. Officer Makes Waves Again With China Comments

An outspoken intelligence officer for the U.S. Pacific Fleet has ruffled feathers in Beijing and Washington by warning publicly that the Chinese military is training for a “short, sharp” war with Japan and planning to establish an air defense identification zone over the disputed South China Sea this year or next.

Capt. James Fannell, director of intelligence and information operations for the Pacific Fleet, also told a maritime security conference on Feb. 13 that he expected China “soon” to start using its new aircraft carrier to back up its territorial claims in the contested South China Sea.

Capt. Fannell, who made the remarks on a panel with other uniformed U.S. Navy officers at the West 2014 conference in San Diego, is one of the U.S. military’s most outspoken hawks on China. He doesn’t speak officially for the Pacific Fleet, the U.S. Navy or the Pentagon, according to U.S. defense officials.

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Rear Admiral John Kirby, a Pentagon spokesman, told a news briefing Thursday that Capt. Fannell was expressing his own views, and denied that the speech was a “trial balloon” for a tougher U.S. military posture in Asia.

“I’m not going to — and it would be inappropriate for me to speak to the intentions or motivations of an — of another foreign nation and their military,” he said, when asked if the Pentagon shared Capt. Fannell’s views.

Privately, U.S. defense officials say they have been debating whether to reprimand Capt. Fannell for speaking out of line when the Pentagon is trying to ease tensions between China and Japan, and improve military ties with Beijing.

U.S. Army Chief of Staff Ray Odierno was in Beijing this week to try to establish more regular exchanges with the Chinese army.
Asked at a news briefing on Saturday if he too believed China was training for a “short, sharp war” with Japan, Gen. Odierno said: “I’ve seen no indications of that at all.”

Hua Chunying, a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman, told a regular news briefing Friday that China had a right to establish air defense identification zones, but dismissed as speculation any suggestion that it was planning to do so in the South China Sea.

“I don’t know who said China will set up an ADIZ in the South China Sea, but I think this kind of speculation and rumor is made with ulterior motives,” she said.

Capt. Fannell gave an equally blunt assessment of China’s military activities in a speech at the same conference last year, which also stirred controversy when it was made public.

“It sounded so aggressive then to simply state the facts,” he said in this year’s presentation. “What a difference a year makes. As it turns out, China’s navy and civil maritime organizations have more than validated our concerns.”

He said China had shifted the focus of its naval training in the second half of 2013 towards real combat exercises aimed at fighting a war over islands in the East China Sea that are claimed by both China and Japan.

“In addition to their longstanding task to restore Taiwan to the mainland, we witnessed the massive amphibious and cross-military region exercise, Mission Action 2013, and concluded that the PLA has been given a new task,” he said.

The task, he said, was “to be able to conduct a short sharp war to destroy Japanese forces in the East China Sea” followed by seizure of the disputed islands there.

The PLA had also conducted unprecedented exercises last year integrating missile forces with surface ships, submarines and aircraft from all three Chinese fleets to train to “deter or destroy” U.S. forces trying to intervene in the region, he said.

“In all last year we counted in Chinese press nine instances of PLA navy surface action groups and air forces steaming and flying into the Western Pacific to practice striking naval targets,” he said.

“The amount of time PLA navy surface action groups train in the Philippine Seas now rivals that of the U.S. navy.”

He said China had been “vigorously” developing infrastructure on disputed islands in the South China Sea and using its newly beefed up coast guard to enforce its territorial claims.

“We have heard many senior PLA officers say the PLA navy and the Chinese coast guard efforts are not coordinated,” he said. “This is simply not true. This campaign is being meticulously coordinated from Beijing.”

He said China was likely planning to establish control over all air and marine traffic across the South China Sea, citing recently issued Chinese regulations that seek to regulate all fishing activities in the waters it claims.

“As I told you so last year, this year and next I expect that the People’s Republic of China will declare an ADIZ in the South China Sea,” he said.
“We soon expect to see their new aircraft carrier, the Liaoning, being used to back up their campaign to secure their neighbors’ coastal state rights in the South China Sea.”

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